This CPD webinar is aimed at South African veterinarians who want to inform themselves about the live export of livestock by sea. Veterinarians representing the Australian Department of Agriculture, Australian authorised veterinarians and welfare vets provide a broad perspective of their experiences and expertise, being involved in this industry over the past 40 years.
Middle Eastern industry has been targeting the South African livestock industry as a source of live sheep for export and slaughter since 2019. Despite fierce opposition from within South Africa a court finding allowed a third shipment of 56 000 sheep to leave South Africa during the height of the northern hemisphere summer, during August 2020.
The South African Veterinary Association (SAVA) has retained the position not to support live export by sea. However, with a very real prospect that this industry may continue and animals be sourced from the South African livestock industry, South African veterinarians should not be unprepared to face the challenges that this may present.
Learn more about the experiences of vets who have travelled on these voyages, with a focus on the monitoring of animal welfare, including the physiology of heat stress and how it is assessed and handled (including euthanasia), as well as carcass management and disposal. Evidence of both successful and unsuccessful voyages is provided from a veterinary perspective. Other issues, such as recent improvements of older ships, as well as timing of consignments, the impact of wool covering, diet, etc., is addressed. Information regarding resources to regulate these journeys, highlighting critical elements and implementation challenges from a regulatory perspective are discussed.
You can watch this RuVASA-funded sheep export webinar on demand and obtain CPD points
The presentations (.pdf) can be downloaded for easy reference (copyrights are held by the respective presenters and/or the institutions they represented and may not be used or distributed without their permission):